MSC to launch new ultra-luxury brand

It’s best for agents to market the future ships by keeping them distinct from MSC Yacht Club, the executive chairman advises.

MSC Cruises will launch a new “ultra-luxury” brand for its four new ships, the first of which is scheduled to come into service in spring 2023.

The best way for travel agents to market the new ships will be to keep them distinct from the existing premium Yacht Club brand, MSC’s executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago told an audience of agents at the weekend.

He was speaking in Southampton, England, at a Cruise Lines International Association conference aboard MSC Bellissima, a new Meraviglia-class vessel that debuts this month.

“They will have a different brand to MSC Yacht Club,” he said. “These are not premium or luxury ships, but ultra-luxury. And so they will have a luxury brand.”

He later added: “We were designing these ships, and we worked on them so much that we created a whole new brand that is so different to what we have with the Yacht Club.”

Suites and verandas
He elaborated that “there will no longer be cabins and balconies but suites and verandas. We’ll be introducing this new brand very soon.”

MSC Cruises’ ultra-luxury vessels will come into service in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Last November, chief executive Gianni Onorato said the line planned to create a new brand for the luxury ships but did not reveal where they would be positioned in the market, Travel Weekly reports.